"&t hom'e" with him. The true Church of Chriet, the ideal Christia.n family or society, is tha.t company which feels that God is with it of a truth, which realizes 11.nd rejoices in hie presence. II. 'fHAT THE CITY OF Goo IS THE PLACE OF SACRIFICE. The "altar" of Old Testa- ment times has for ever disappeared now that the great Sacrifice bas been presented, now that the way into the holiest is open, now that nothing stands between the Divine mercy and the penitent and believing soul. But still the city of God is the place of sacrifice; for still every true servant of Christ is continually engaged in offering up "spiritual aacrifices" unto God. These are the offeiings of praise (Heh. xiii. 15), of consecration (Rom. xii. 1), of lcindness (Heb. xiii. 16) ;-these and such as these are "acceptable to God" (1 Pet. ii. 5). • III. THAT THE CITY OF Goo IS A PLACE OF REVERENT AND JOYOUS COMMUNION. "Add ye year to year," etc. (ver. 1); i.e. let the festivals go round from year to year. The prophet is thought to have spoken ironically, as if he would say," Go on with your solemnities, but they will avail you nothing." However this may be, we may be sure that when Jerusalem was what Jehovah meant it to be, it was a city in which sacred festivals brought the people 0f God into holy and happy communion with one another and with their Divine Ruler. And whr.n that which is now the counterpart of the city of God is what its Lord meant it to be, it is a place where human souls mingle in sacred fellowship, and where they all unite in reverent and happy intercourse with the Father of their spirits, with the Saviour of their souls. IV. THAT THE CITY OF. Gon MAY BE A PLACE OF DIVINE JUI>GMEJIT. " yet I will distress .Ariel, and th~re shall be heaviness and sorrow," etc. (vers. 2---4). When the Church, the society, the family, or the individual soul needs Divine correction, God will send his chastisements. 'l'he .Author of its peace will be the Source of its sorrow. 1. It (he) will be as a besieged city, as a city against which the agents of God are encamped, shut in, circumscribed, reduced to privation and distress, made to feel its feebleness, driven to cry out for help. 2. It (he) will be humiliated. "Thou shalt be brought down," etc. (ver. 4). Nothing so much offends God as pride, haughtiness of heart, presumption ; and when this is manifested by his people, they may expect to be abased to the very dust, until their spirit has been renewed and they have learned humility under his correcting hand. V. THAT TilE CITY OF Gon IS THE OBJECT OF THE DIVINE DELIVEilAKCE. (Vers. 5-9.) When God arises to deliver his people, his visitation may be: 1. Unexpected. (Ver. 5.) When the Son of man cometh, will he find his people expecting his appear- ance (Luke xviii. 8)? 2. Overwhelming. (Vers. 6, 7.) It will (may) be as if all the elements conspired to work hie will. 8 . .Attended with bitterest disappointment to his foes. (Ver. 8.) 1. See to it that this severe correction be not called for; that it is not brought down by worldliness, by formality, by selfishness, by pride, by discord, by indnlgence. 2. If the hour of correction should arrive, let immediate repentance bring on at once the time of deliverance.-O.
Vere. 9-12.-Spiritual incapacity. Our powers, as men and women, are limited enough ; and it may well be that those of God's children who move in wider spheres and are endowed with greater capacities look down in wonder, if not with amusement, on our large pretensions. Yet we talk freely of the incapable, the feeble, the helpless, as if we oursebes were strong. 'l'here are various degrees of power and wtoakness among us, b11t the most important belong to that kind of incapacity to which the text refers. I. ITS DOMAIN, The prophet treats of spiritual helplessness. We see and lament physical incapacity in the shape of blindness, deafness, paralysis, etc. We also have to treat mental incapacity in the form of intellectual feebleness, decline, imbecility, insanity. But by far the saddest sight in tho view of God is spiritual incapacity-that moral condition in which the soul has lost its native powers, is destitute of those acquirements which would enable it to stand side by side with the holiest of the heavenly world, lacks the wisdom by which it might defend itself against its adver- saries and is therefore the prey of the worst evils, forfeits its birthright. and moves towards its doom. This incapacity affects the soul in all its higher and more serious IS.A.UH, 2 I 48! THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oH. xxrx. 1-24-,